ATandT Finally Bringing MMS to the iPhone

AT&T attempts to soothe disgruntled Apple iPhone owners, who had been promised multimedia messaging service (MMS) capability with the iPhone's latest software upgrade, by confirming an MMS rollout date on September 25.

Following a delay that
annoyed many of Apple iPhone-owning AT&T customers, the wireless carrier
announced Thursday it will launch its multimedia messaging service (MMS) for
the iPhone on September 25. AT&T said it understood customers are "eager"
for an update on the plan's rollout schedule. The iPhone 3.0 operating system,
updated this summer, allowed the popular smartphones MMS capability. Although
iPhone carriers outside the country began MMS network support immediately, AT&T
said it was going to wait.

"We've been working for the
past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best
possible experience with MMS when it launches, and that launch date is
September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customer," read a statement on AT&T's
Web site. "We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities
and high usage of the iPhone's multimedia capabilities required us to work on
our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic
and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as
we work toward that end."

While customer complaints
over AT&T's lack of MMS capability were ramping up, a New York Times
article suggested that iPhone users themselves were to blame for slow service
and the glacial pace of network upgrades, due to the intense amount of data
iPhone users process on a daily basis. AT&T CTO John Donovan admitted the
year had been a challenge. "Overnight we're seeing a radical shift in how people
are using their phones," he told the paper. "There's just no parallel for the
demand."
In a statement released by
the company, AT&T said wireless use on their network has grown an average
of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to
continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. "We're riding the leading edge of
smartphone growth that's resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T
network," read the statement. "The volume of smartphone data traffic the
AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you
to know that we're working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network
to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth
in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come."
While the company plans to
spend $18 billion upgrading its network, the investment may come too late-AT&T's
exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone is due to expire in 2010, and a survey
from the online price comparison company Pricegrabber found 34 percent of respondents
forgo buying an iPhone because of AT&T's network.

Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.